Opinions of Tuesday, 6 September 2022
Columnist: Ohene Safo
For years, businesses like Labianca Company Limited have been built on a good investment foundation, people development, and a clearly defined vision.
Labianca Company Limited has always believed that the growth of each competitor within the industry means more jobs being created by the collective.
In recent times, however, industry watchers will note the insistent attacks targeted at Labianca Company Limited. These attempts by some players within the industry seem to elicit the perception that some will rather mischievously collapse the industry with lies and fabrications than with the real competitive spirit
Whilst competitions must lead to better development for all, the likes of Francopat have constantly sought to destroy the image of Labianca Limited with fabrication daily.
Over the years, Francopat ALLEGEDLY has led a charge to discredit Labianca Limited within political circles, the business community, and among its global supplies with the hope of using the route to advance its course to expand its import value to Ghana.
This alleged approach seems to be the path chosen by Francopat as the business continues to parade documents to destroy Labianca Company limited, the category leader in the frozen import business.
As claimed by Hannah Bissiw, a former Deputy Minister of Agriculture under the John Mahama administration, the consistent negative attacks on Labianca have been orchestrated by Francopat.
According to insiders, Francopat allegedly has spent the past years parading documents of Labianca across offices, looking for individuals to help tarnish the company's hard-earned reputation.
According to a former Deputy Minister of Agric, some of the documents being paraded around by the owner of Francopat were part of some everyday phenomena in the frozen import industry. As the former minister disclosed on Neat FM, an Accra-based Radio station, Frank Owusu, popularly called FrancoPat, was the person behind the Special Prosecutor’s focus on Labianca Company Limited and other recent purported investigations by some media houses.
In the previous administration, companies like FrancoPat had received Gold Star status which allowed them to import without container inspection. This created an unfair advantage for the business. An issue that has never come up for any audit.
It is interesting to note that, whilst the special prosecutor and others have berated LaBianca for receiving a discount value of up to 10%, companies like FrancoPat enjoy a 12% rebate. It begs the question, why are the OSP and others not focusing on them in the interest of fairness?
Reports gathered by sources close to the major supplies of frozen foods to Ghana point to the fact that competitors have made similar attempts and overtures to get them to cancel contracts with Labianca with the hope that Francopat gets to expand its import value.
This selfish and disingenuous approach only seeks to play to the unfortunate desires of one company as against the investment, jobs created, and the contribution of Labianca to the economy.